Tuesday, September 03, 2013

Movement reigns as a means to add realism

Putting time to create a simple yet rather detailed weapon mechanism has paid off, but movement is quickly emerging as a means to make the game even more interesting and realistic. Rounds, single actions per round and initiative rolls are yielding to a flexible time frame with a reflex roll mechanism that may yield not only an initiative benefit, but also extra attacks.

Adding detail to the weapons is good, but a player might not know the difference between the game's weapon and a real weapon if he's never fired it for real, and thus not really value the hard work put into obtain such a detailed model or the added math required during the game to make such a weapon feel real. This is even more so for futuristic weapons that don't even exist and thus lack any real life reference point. Now movement, that's something all players can relate to. How a character jumps, runs, turns, swings, stretches out, etc. are all things players can vividly identify with.

When a game forces the character to either take an action or move a great degree of realism is lost. I can't relate that well to a game that doesn't let me shoot as I move, or move, shoot and move again. When I can't run my character past something while swinging left and right, the game looses a great deal of realism.

I'm more forgiving when the weapon range or reach isn't quite right than when I can't do with it what I could clearly do in real life. I can't tightrope walk, nor can I climb walls, but when a character that can do that can't run as he swings his sword... well that's just simply unrealistic as it gets.

What are you thoughts about movement in the games you play? Do you think characters should be given more freedom to move and attack or would that break the game?